


Strike the Bell

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Series: Assorted Narnia Crossovers and AUs [27]
Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis, Enchanted Forest Chronicles - Patricia Wrede
Genre: 3 Sentence Ficathon, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Dimension Travel, Gen, Prompt Fic, Research, Technobabble, none of this nonsense please, the beginning of an ethically questionable research partnership
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-03-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:08:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23123785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: In which Telemain finds a way to communicate between universes. This is a fascinating and noteworthy development!Unfortunately, his new magical research partner may have ulterior motives...
Relationships: Morwen & Telemain (Enchanted Forest)
Series: Assorted Narnia Crossovers and AUs [27]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/130539
Comments: 5
Kudos: 35





	Strike the Bell

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Syrena_of_the_lake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syrena_of_the_lake/gifts).



> Written 2/14/20 for [syrena_of_the_lake](https://syrena_of_the_lake.dreamwidth.org), in response to the prompt: [Narnia/Enchanted Forest Chronicles crossover; any character; boundaries between worlds](https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/157880.html?thread=7854520#cmt7854520).
> 
> As you can see, this completely and utterly got away from me. *wry*

"It occurred to me that the Caves of Chance might be the best setting for experimenting with dimensionally-complicated spells," Telemain said as he led Morwen, Aunt Ophelia, and Fiddlesticks down a narrow, twisting passage, "given that malleability of location is one of their many inherent peculiarities. While I haven't yet found a way to sidestep the wizards' barrier spell, as it were, by forming a path through various other-spaces, I do believe I've found a way to make the boundaries between dimensions, or perhaps between universes, permeable to sight."

"Fascinating," Morwen said, keeping her tone somewhat dry though she did mean it sincerely. "You'll have to explain the theory to me later, but for now just tell me if you've seen anything interesting."

"Mostly a lot of dark caves," Telemain said with a vaguely annoyed expression, "which I suspect is down to general resonance effects. It's quite likely I'd see trees if I managed to get the spell functional within the Enchanted Forest, see mountains from the Mountains of Morning, and so on. But the encounter that most particularly caught my attention was the very tall woman in a white fur coat and a crown of iron and ice who seemed to see me in return and attempted to cast a spell, presumably of an aggressive nature, across the barrier between us... until the image of a lion suddenly blotted her out and ordered me not to look that way again."

"That's rude!" said Fiddlesticks. "Everybody knows cats can look at kings, and Telemain's _almost_ like a cat, so he should get to look wherever he wants."

"If you want to make that argument to a lion, be my guest," said Aunt Ophelia. "I'll watch from off to the side."

Morwen ignored the consequent hissing squabble and asked, "Did you listen to him?"

Telemain frowned. "Obviously not. What kind of researcher would I be if I let people arbitrarily close down avenues of investigation? And the next time I found that specific boundary, the woman in the white crown acted as though she'd never tried to attack me and instead attempted to suggest we collaborate on a way to send more than visual images between worlds. She has intriguing ideas, which have helped us establish a tenuous audio link in addition to the visual link, but I find her behavior somewhat suspicious and wanted to bring you in for a second opinion, both on the technical end and on my potential research partner's motives."

Morwen hummed thoughtfully between her teeth. If Telemain had managed to notice potentially suspicious behavior through his focus on new research ideas, it was likely this alternate-universe witch had deeply questionable ethics. That wasn't necessarily a deal-breaker -- Morwen had collaborated with ethically shaky people on various projects over the years -- but it did mean she'd take a very careful look at what this alternate-universe witch might be able to do with proper inter-dimensional travel spells.

But all she said aloud was, "I see. Well, it looks like we've finally reached your laboratory, so let's get started and hope the mysterious lion doesn't interrupt to warn me off in turn."

"Now you've jinxed it," said Aunt Ophelia.

"Jinxes aren't real!" said Fiddlesticks. "And anyway, we'll protect you."

"If he does, we'll simply start over," said Telemain as he snapped his fingers and lit the magical lamps that hung on chains of varying length. "I've never been good at following orders without a proper explanation."

"Except mine, I hope?"

"You always explain yourself afterwards," Telemain said absently. "Now, let me see..." He bustled about the complicated brass and crystal apparatus in the center of the cave for several minutes while Morwen tried to split her attention between his adjustments and her cats, who were poking gleefully around the corners in search of misplaced magical gewgaws or small underground prey. She could make out that he was tapping into the same principle of indeterminacy he'd used in his failed attempts to reverse-engineer Mendanbar's elegant transportation spell, and that he had several components designed to enhance clarity, truth, and so-forth, but beyond that it was difficult to interpret the practical details without knowing the background theory.

"That should do it," Telemain said at last. He drew a small stone wand topped with a chunk of rutilated quartz, tapped it three times against a small golden bell -- the chime rang out both as a sweet tone and a mirage-like visual ripple -- and pronounced, _"Vertilarian, vertilentricae, vertilosiux."_

The air over the apparatus wavered like stone-struck water, then resolved into something almost but not exactly like a magic mirror. On the far side, looking back at them like a cat at a mouse it hasn't quite decided whether to eat or to play with, was a woman with salt-white skin and long black hair, wearing a crown of ice and iron and a white silk dress embroidered with diamonds and pearls that likely cost as much as Morwen's entire house.

"Hello," the woman said. "I see you've brought a guest."

"This is my friend Morwen, a highly skilled witch," Telemain said. "Morwen, may I introduce Jadis of Narnia. I'm sure we'll all find this a very interesting work session."

"Yes," said Morwen, in a carefully blank tone. "I believe we will."

Across the boundary between worlds, Jadis smiled.


End file.
